Ortwin Renn will discuss governance and the systemic risk of climate change

S

ocietal governance will become the pre-eminent issue as the difficulties associated with climate change deepen.

Professor Ortwin Renn will
discuss risk and governance.

Those concerned about and interested in how society will manage itself in how communities will manage themselves would enjoy a July 16 event at the University of Melbourne.

A full professor for Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment and Dean of the Economic and Social Science Department at the University of Stuttgart,  Ortwin Renn, will discuss “Challenges of Risk Governance: Coping with Systemic Risks such as Climate Change”.

In promoting the lecture, the Melbourne University said: “Current societies are challenged by a number of pressing global systemic risks arising from global environmental change, in particular climate change.

“Responding adequately to these risks is a challenge for our world society in which national interests and different cultures conflict with efficient responses.”

Further, it said, “Systemic risks can be characterised by four major properties: they are (1) global in nature, (2) highly interconnected and intertwined leading to complex causal structures, (3) non-linear in the cause-effect relationships, and (4) stochastic (or random) in their effect structure.

“Governance of systemic risks requires strategies that address the complexity, scientific uncertainty, and sociopolitical ambiguity of these underlying relationships.

“However, attempts to address climate change have decoupled risk anticipation from sustainable and resilient risk management processes and structures. “Furthermore, because the modernization process facilitates the emergence of plural knowledge and value claims this has led to multiple stakeholders implicated in the risk management process. This often includes a power-imbalance among stakeholders in decision making and communicative processes,” it said.

It added, “Public participation has proven to be an important part and often key driver for successful and legitimate risk governance for advancing climate change policies.

“The various actors of society and the public at large can be important in providing local knowledge and experiences, informing decision making, especially with regard to uncertainty and ambiguity, and securing legitimacy for managing risk.

“Risk management and communication needs to address the four characteristics of systemic risks and develop appropriate instruments to deal with global, interconnected, stochastic and nonlinear risks.”

Professor Ortwin Renn serves as full professor for Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment and as the Dean of the Economic and Social Science Department at the University of Stuttgart, among many other notable affiliations and honours.

He is primarily interested in risk governance, political participation, and technical and social change towards sustainability. Renn has published more than 30 books and 250 articles, most prominently the monograph ‘Risk Governance’. 

Prof Renn will be at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne at 234 Queensberry St, Carlton, on Thursday, July 16at 5:30pm - 7.00pm.